--Well, it's official -- Halloween in the Castro is done. We look forward to chaos this October 31 when people show up anyways and no one's expecting them. --No African-Americans in the Bay Area in either jazz or classical music today. Yoshi's apologizes, the SF Opera does not. --Good for Caltrain! They cited over 100 people who drove under the lowered railroad safety arms. --Personnel turmoil at the Oakland Animal Shelter. --You can follow......

Buried at the bottom of Sunday's Matier & Ross column is a blurb detailing the lengths ABC 7's Dan Noyes has been going to try and get an interview with everyone’s favorite femme fatale, Ruby Tourk. In the blurb, there's a few mildly snarky comments about Dan trying once again to get Gavin and how he's trying to stir things up with the issue of Ruby's time off. ...

Local bookstore chain, Cody's Books has just announced that it is selling itself to a Japanese chain. Current owner, Andy Ross, will stay on as President of Cody's. Meanwhile, the former flagship Cody's store on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley that closed recently, prompting much hand-wringing, 60s nostalgia, and debate amongst armchair urban planners is now one of those temporary Halloween superstores. We are holding our breath for the ironic next phase of vacant large storefronts......

Last week's winner, the Bay Guardian. The theme of the Local News section is "Editor's note: Alix Rosenthal [District 8 candidate] is the domestic partner of Guardian city editor Steven T. Jones. Jones did not participate in the assigning, writing, or editing of this story," as the Guardian weighs in on both the Castro Halloween fight and an update on the Pendulum. Also, Chris Daly can't get any documents under the sunshine laws either. Why......

Happy 50th birthday, Cody's Books, and rest in peace, Cody's Telegraph Street -- the most iconic branch of the Cody's Books triumverate is closing for good tonight at 8 p.m. Folks are pretty worked up -- two folks have written poems (scroll to end). Andy Ross, the selling owner, threw a party on Sunday, which was 1) the bookstore's 50th birthday (July 9, 1956), 2) the 29th anniversary of Ross's purchase of the store from......

Was it something we said? First there was the dispiriting news about Clean Well-Lighted's sale, and now the Chron reports that the flagship Cody's Books on Telegraph is closing, after 43 years. NO!!! Andy Ross, who owns Cody's, says that the store has lost over $1 million/year trying to keep the store open and that they just can't support it anymore. Foot traffic is down, maybe because older readers don't like going to Telegraph Avenue,......

We at SFist love our independent bookstores. We cried when Kepler's closed and cheered when it reopened. Every week in SFist Reads we urge you to visit the many fine independent bookstores scattered around the Bay Area. So we're giddy about the new Cody's Books at 2 Stockton Street, in the old Planet Hollywood space across from the Apple store. Cody's, a Berkeley institution started by Pat and Fred Cody in 1959 and now......